The annual German mushroom days, organised by the BDC (Bund Deutscher Champignon- und Kulturpilzanbauer) were held on the 29th and 30th October in the North German Cloppenburg. The agenda listed a number of cultivation-technical and environment related points as well as addressing the German competitive position.

The Cloppenburg region is home to a number of mushroom growers, namely Wiesenhof and the Weisse Köpfe group. Both companies operate various farms, with their own composting facilities and own markets. Host of the 56h Jahrestagung was Michael Böging, director of Weisse Köpfe. On Friday morning the association held a closed meeting, with sessions open to the public starting at 10 o’clock with a series of lectures in the town hall Cloppenburg.

Rain water and solar energy

The morning featured two themes, starting with re-use of rainwater. Mr. Henne-Wellner, a well-known German grower and owner of a large company in Dassel, discussed the possibilities of collecting rainwater discharged from roofs for use in composting, and as cooling and cleaning water. This company already meets half its annual need for water using rain water; an interesting solution.

A Swiss company, Wauwiller mushrooms from Wauwil, also concluded that re-use of rain water could be interesting, although it hasn't yet applied the theory in practice

Both speakers emphasised that re-use of rainwater is probably only appealing for companies where compost is also produced.

The second topic before lunch was solar energy. This topic involves overcoming certain pre-conditions according to speaker Thorsten Jan-Dirk Cordes, although the large roofs of farms and composting plants certainly offer possibilities in the future.

Oyster mushrooms, scratching and Poland

After lunch, where the mushrooms were served in such generous portions there was unintentionally nothing left over for the speakers, the first session dealt with growing. Patrick Romanens from Switzerland opened with a lecture on growing Pleurotus Eringyi, an oyster mushroom variety that is grown quite frequently in Italy, but is relatively unknown in the rest of Europe. If it tastes nearly as good as its name, things could change.

Next to speak was John Peeters of C point with the eternal dilemma: to scratch or not to scratch, that’s the question! In other words - ruffle or scratch yes or no. According to the experts present, a clear account was given of when and when not to use the system.

The second part of the afternoon was actually a political debate featuring two speakers: Mr. Gerhard Schulz of the Bundesfachgruppe Gemüsebau (association of vegetable producers) and Mr. Bernd Mönning of the Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture from Bonn. Unsurprisingly, the major item was Poland and the competitive position of the German mushroom industry. During the occasionally rather heated discussion Mr Mönning made himself unpopular by stating that ‘ German growers should start looking around in Poland if the labour is so cheap there’, not a remark well taken by those present.

However, figures show that imports from Poland to Germany appear to have stabilised, and the chairman of the Polish mushroom grower's association, also at the conference, stated that the situation is not all roses for Polish growers either at the moment.

Mr. Schmaus, chairman for the day and of the BDC, brought a halt to the debate at around six o’clock by saying there were still some festivities awaiting everyone later on that evening.

Good atmosphere

The evening, with a delicious meal, still turned out to be pleasant and enjoyable, due in part to the DJ sponsored by Paul Geraedts of construction company Geraedts BV, whose choice of music encouraged everyone to take to the dance floor in high spirits to finish the proceedings in the early hours of the morning.

As usual, the Dutch were out in force at the ‘Tagung’, but the Germans dominated - as they should at this event!